Case Study

Integrated Design

Integrated Design Inc is a SaaS-based data integration company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that provides data integration and customized solutions that connect hundreds of time and attendance, human resources, ERP and payroll companies. For more than 30 years, Integrated Design’s integration solutions have enabled more than 25,000 clients across North America to automate their unique business rules and pay policies by providing extensive industry domain knowledge, software development expertise and business process experience.

The Problem

In 2010, Integrated Design realized their in-house infrastructure could not keep up with demand and that their web applications needed a robust, enterprise-level infrastructure with a high degree of performance. They knew they could meet the changing needs of their clients and plan for future growth if they used a secure, scalable, cloud-based solution.

Integrated Design started searching for providers. According to Cheryl Karamihas, product manager at Integrated Design, they not only required a scalable solution that could deliver 100 percent uptime, but also needed a company that thoroughly understood and enacted strict security controls.

“We are partners with industry leading Human Capital Management (HCM) companies, and we consistently have to demonstrate to them that we can secure their client’s data and adhere to their rigorous security standards,” she said. “So, having the highest level of security available to us was very appealing.”

The Solution

After researching several providers, Integrated Design selected OTAVA’s virtual private cloud for its unparalleled ability to deliver high performance and rapid response times, and scale easily on demand. All of OTAVA’s clouds are also fully managed, including troubleshooting, patch management and proactive server remediation for any issues that arise. Integrated Design’s cloud layered on an extra level of protection with offsite backup to OTAVA’s Indianapolis site.

They also utilize OTAVA’s Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to ensure quick recovery if the worst should happen. However, the company also uses this service in a unique way.

“We’re actually using our DR servers as a way to do quick final tests of our software releases before going live,” Karamihas said. “This has worked really well for us because with testing, we get to put the disaster recovery environment through its paces to make sure it will work in a real emergency and we get an added safeguard to make sure we have everything in place before a big release. The service has been awesome.”

As Integrated Design looks ahead, Karamihas said their important future project is further enhancing their already-strong security posture, including adding more in-depth network and application scanning capabilities. She was pleased that OTAVA suggested one of its security partners, Total Compliance Tracking, help with the project to ensure that Integrated Design gets exactly what it needs.

“I love the fact that when I was explaining our project, OTAVA listened, plugged me in with the right people and helped facilitate that relationship further,” Karamihas said. “It was frustrating for me not being able to figure out where to go, and seeing that OTAVA has these kinds of partnerships already built in is incredibly helpful to me.”

Karamihas says the extra security measures will allow Integrated Design to answer future security questionnaires from their partners and clients with more detail.

“We deal with a lot of personal information, and our vendors have a right to be concerned about the security of their data as it passes through our systems,” she said. “The network and application scans will help us respond to their frequent security questionnaires with confidence.”

Conclusion

With OTAVA, Integrated Design has the secure and highly available cloud environment they were looking for and can confidently assure their customers that their data is well protected. They added a unique component to their environment in DRaaS to ensure they can quickly fail over if their production servers go down and test out major system updates before they are released to the public. With this combination of services, Integrated Design is in a strong position for future growth.